This Is Us, the inclusive dance group for children and adults with additional needs, is ten. Classes run at Bishops Down Primary on Mondays and Tuesdays, from £9.

This Is Us, a Tunbridge Wells dance group for children and adults with additional needs, is marking ten years of classes. It started in 2016 and now runs two junior groups, a youth group and a performance company for over-16s. (This Is Us Dance)

Its website now leads with “Celebrating 10 years of changing lives, through movement and creativity”. The group is based at Bishops Down Primary School on Rydal Drive, TN4.

How it started

Jan Cockburn, a director, is a teaching assistant who supports children with additional needs in a mainstream primary school. She says she kept meeting families who could not find after-school clubs for their children, and dance was the hardest to find.

“To have a company that has helped fill this void, since 2016, is a joy to be a part of,” she said. (This Is Us, Our team)

The classes are taught by Hannah Rotchell, a director and the group’s teacher. She is a professional dancer and choreographer. “My classes focus on the joy of movement,” she said. “I am not necessarily about how the steps ‘should look’, but how they feel.”

The group became a community interest company in March 2019. Companies House lists it as This Is Us Youth Dance CIC, company 11882021. (Companies House, 11882021)

The classes

Group When Where Age Price
Junior (Monday) Monday, 4pm to 4.45pm Bishops Down Primary School 4+ £9
Youth Monday, 5pm to 6.30pm Bishops Down Primary School 9+ £12.50
Junior (Tuesday) Tuesday, 4.30pm to 5.15pm Bishops Down Primary School 4+ £9
Performance Tuesday, 6.45pm to 8.15pm The Camden Centre 16+, by invitation £12.50

Prices and times are as the group lists them. (This Is Us, Classes)

The group also offers:

  • one-to-one lessons, built around one person’s needs
  • creative movement sessions in SEND schools during the school day
  • community workshops, mostly in the school holidays, announced on its social media

The youth and performance groups follow the IRIS syllabus from Stopgap Dance Company, an inclusive dance company. The letters stand for inclusive, responsive, integrated and specialised. (This Is Us, About)

About fifteen This Is Us dancers and helpers in matching white T-shirts posing together in a sports hall, some kneeling at the front and two dancers in wheelchairs
This Is Us dancers and helpers in a group photo. Photo: via This Is Us Dance

Who backs it

The group’s current grant funders are BBC Children in Need, the National Lottery Community Fund and the Rotary Club of Tunbridge Wells. Its patron is Cheryl Baker, who won Eurovision for the UK with Bucks Fizz in 1981.

Its partner schools are Bishops Down Primary, Oakley School in Tonbridge and Pembury, and St Piers School. The Assembly Hall Theatre and Stopgap are among its partner organisations.

The group says it depends on volunteers, including Duke of Edinburgh’s Award volunteers.

What it means for you

  • Looking for a class: the junior groups take children from four. Contact the group through its website before turning up.
  • For schools and organisations: the group runs outreach sessions and asks schools to get in touch.
  • To help: it takes volunteers and donations through its website.